Page 26 of Finding Love at Roseford Blooms
Lizzie smiled, her own mouth still only a centimetre or two from his. ‘I’m glad to hear it.’
‘I wasn’t expecting that,’ Simon continued, his breath warm on her face as they lingered between kisses. ‘Not after what you’ve just told me.’
Another couple of kisses punctuated the moments before Lizzie replied. ‘It was a long time ago,’ she said eventually. ‘And maybe this is helping me to move on, in a way.’
Simon nodded. ‘I hope so.’
And standing there, kissing Simon in a house that had once held so much significance for her, for entirely different reasons, Lizzie found herself daring to hope that things were going to get better.
22
‘Someone’s happy this morning!’ The voice came from behind him as Simon, humming under his breath, finished unloading the dishwasher. ‘Is there something I should know?’
Simon’s head jerked up at the sound of Sarah’s voice. ‘Would it kill you to knock before you come in?’ He put the stack of dinner plates, which he’d very nearly dropped, onto the worktop.
‘Oh, sorry,’ Sarah replied. ‘I mean, it’s not as if this used to be my house too, or anything.’ She grabbed the kettle, and, filling it briskly with cold water, flipped the switch. ‘I just thought I’d come over and see how you are, oh, and thank you again for your help with Holmes last night.’
‘No problem,’ Simon replied evenly. He felt his face growing a little warm as he remembered how wonderful the much-delayed kiss had been with Lizzie later that evening, but he wasn’t prepared to elaborate on that with Sarah. Some things he wanted to keep to himself. There was, of course, an elephant in the room that he needed to discuss with her, though. He had hoped he’d have a little more time to think about how to broach the subject, after Lizzie’s disclosure last night, but it didn’t need putting off.
As Sarah made two cups of tea, and chatted idly about the plans for the wedding, and a couple of other events that Roseford Hall was hosting over the coming weeks, Simon tried hard to focus, but all he could think about was what Lizzie had told him, and how it had altered his perspective of Sarah considerably. Even allowing for the fact that time might have enlarged Lizzie’s grievances, Simon was inclined to believe her account. What bothered him was what exactly Sarah had known about the plan to harass and embarrass Lizzie.
‘Thanks,’ he said as she passed him a mug of hot tea and they both sat down at the table. His stomach rumbled. He hadn’t had breakfast yet. He was happy, therefore, when Sarah produced a couple of Chelsea buns from a paper bag.
‘Thought you might want a bit of sugar to tide you over,’ she said, passing him one.
‘So,’ Sarah said, once she’d had a couple of bites of her own huge cake. ‘Is there anything you’d like to tell me?’
Suddenly the mouthful of soft pastry seemed to be taking Simon an eternity to chew and swallow. He took a gulp of tea that was entirely too hot and did little to ease his predicament.
‘There was something I needed to talk to you about, actually.’
Sarah raised an eyebrow. ‘Oh, yes?’
‘It’s about Lizzie Warner.’
‘Don’t tell me you’ve proposed!’ Sarah laughed. ‘I mean, she’s only been in the village a couple of weeks, hasn’t she?’
Simon shook his head. ‘Mum might be desperate to marry me off, but I’m not into rushing quite that much.’ He toyed with the handle of his tea mug.
‘The thing is, Sarah… while it’s Lizzie I want to talk to you about, it’s not in the way you might think.’
He paused.
Sarah gave a short laugh. ‘She’s not asked you for money, has she? Haven’t you made it clear that we don’t actuallyhaveany?’
Simon shook his head impatiently, irritated that Sarah was refusing to take him seriously.
‘Look, she told me, about something that happened here years ago. I need to know just how… involved you were in all of it.’
Sarah looked confused. ‘What are you saying?’
Simon took another sip of his tea before continuing. Rapidly, he relayed the story that Lizzie had told him the night before, trying not to downplay or over-dramatise, despite his conflicted emotions.
As he drew to a close, there was a long silence.
‘God, Simon,’ Sarah began. ‘I mean… what do you want me to say? It was twenty years ago.’
‘I want to know your side of the story,’ Simon said calmly. ‘Everyone makes mistakes, and everyone’s been a stupid teenager, but did you know about all this, back then?’
